Putin blames US for ‘assassination bid in Kremlin’ as despot blitzes Ukraine’s capital Kyiv with drone strikes
RUSSIA has blitzed Kyiv in revenge what they say was an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin.
Residents in Ukraine's capital were hit with spasms of gunfire and explosions last night.
The strikes started just after 8 pm and lasted around 20 minutes.
It comes after Moscow claimed the United States was behind the alleged attack on the Kremlin on Wednesday.
Footage showed a flying object exploding in flames overnight above the fortress in central - where the president has his office and an apartment.
Russia has since accused the US of being a direct participant in the war, intent on inflicting a "strategic defeat" on Moscow.
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Washington denies this, saying it is arming Kyiv to defend itself and retake illegally seized land.
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said: “We certainly don’t dictate to them the terms by which they defend themselves, or the operations they conduct.”
Ukraine's president Zelensky earlier denied his country attacked Russia or Putin.
"We don't attack Putin or Moscow. We fight on our territory. We are defending our villages and cities," he said.
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But Putin allies reacted to the alleged attack with alarming calls for revenge.
Russian authorities - who have launched a terrorism probe - claim they downed two unmanned aerial vehicles aimed at the presidential complex, where Putin is known to increasingly live during the war.
Extraordinary footage appeared to show the moment a drone exploded over the Senate Palace, with flames and smoke seen coming from the 18th-century dome at 2.27am.
Grandstands set up for the Victory Day parade on May 9 can be seen in Red Square below, in front of the fortress walls.
A second blast was seen over the rooftops at 2.43am.
Residents of the nearby Stalinist House on the river embankment said they “saw sparks in the sky and people with flashlights near the Kremlin wall after the thunderclaps”.
The Kremlin said two drones had been used in the alleged attack, but were disabled by electronic defences.
British security experts believe the attack was a "false flag" operation carried out by Russia to distract Ukraine from its counteroffensive and rack up generate support back home.
Experts from the Institute for the Study of War think-tank said: "Russia likely staged this attack in an attempt to bring the war home to a Russian domestic audience and set conditions for a wider societal mobilisation."